


The Thrilling Adventures of Team Free Will

by Wayrocket



Series: The Thrilling Adventures of Team Free Will [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adventure, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-03
Updated: 2013-06-18
Packaged: 2017-12-10 06:21:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/782818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wayrocket/pseuds/Wayrocket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam, Dean, Cas and Charlie are an adventuring party going from town to town saving people and hunting things. Sam is a wizard who was trained by their paternal grandfather Henry, Dean is a Knight who was trained by their father, Castiel is a cleric who wields his divine power for the forces of Good and Charlie is a rogue who does her best to make sure that those three idiots don't get themselves killed by stepping into a pit trap or having their throats slit in their sleep.<br/>Magic, Hilarity and Adventure ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The four of them sat around a dirty table, killing time in yet another shitty roadside inn. It was dark, smelly and crowded, to be honest Dean would have preferred to just set up camp under the stars but it had looked like rain all day and Sam had bitchfaced until he’d relented. So they had spent some of their rapidly diminishing funds on two rooms; and the fact that torrential rain was now pounding down on the slightly leaky roof was something Dean chose to ignore.

“I’ll go get us a round of drinks.” Said Charlie, she got up and expertly weaved her way through the crowd of weary workmen and right up to the bar.

Dean turned to Sam and Cas who were, at that moment in deep discussion, probably about magic; something that Dean resolutely refused to understand, no matter how many times it had been explained to him. What little Dean had managed to retain was that Sam, being a wizard, used something called Arcane magic, which he had to learn by spending years studying under their grandfather Henry. Cas, on the other hand, was a Cleric which was this sort of warrior priest that used Divine magic, which made him infinitely more badass than Sam; with his wimpy robes and spellbooks.

In addition to the whole magic thing he wore armor as heavy as Dean’s and bashed people to death with his mace, which was awesome in Dean’s book.

Charlie chose that moment to appear silently reappear, at his elbow and sit down. She finished up giving all of the pickpockets and criminals in the inn her ‘Fuck with us and I’ll cut you’ look, and slid three of the mugs across the table. She also plopped a small leather bag down on the table in front of Dean.

“What’s this?” He asked.

“I’d think that you would recognize it. It’s yours after all.”

“Wha- Why the hell do you have my coin purse?”

“Because Dean,” said Charlie, leaning in close with her elbows on the table, “You managed to get pickpocketed again and I was nice enough to steal it back for you on my way to the bar.”

“Well what the hell am I supposed to do about it.” asked Dean as he shoved the purse back into his pocket.

“Well, I’d say be more careful but you muscular types never seem to get the hang of that. Without me you probably would’ve died at the bottom of a pit trap or something years ago.”

Dean stared down into his mug of sour beer for a few minutes before finally breaking the silence. “I hate the rain.”

“You’re always complaining, we can’t buy pie in this town, why can’t we go south for the winter, there’s no way I’m leaving my baby in these nasty-ass stables.” Charlie leveled an exasperated look at him “Would it kill you to lighten up?”

“I need to lighten up? The look you had on your face would have scared a beholder. Besides, I don’t complain that much.”

Charlie sighed, “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, I guess this job’s got us all down. And anyway, I was just letting eyepatch over there know that I had dibs on the waitress, my bad mood is strictly business.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen your business. For somebody as suspicious as you,” Charlie leveled a glare at him, “Sorry, someone as cautious as you, you sure are quick to jump into strange ladies’ beds,” Dean said into his drink.

“With the amount of time that we spend on the road I gotta to take it where I can get it,” said Charlie with a familiar lascivious smile.

Dean looked over to where Sam and Cas were talking and realized with a jolt that they had finished their conversation and Cas was now pinning him down with one of his ridiculously intense stares.

“I stand corrected,” Dean said, meeting Cas’s gaze “The beholder’s over here.”

“Dean,” Said Cas in all seriousness. “Sam and I have been discussing our dilemma and we believe that we have worked out a way to locate those children.”

Charlie looked over with interest and Dean was suddenly all ears. The four of them had recently taken a job in the town that they had been passing through, something was abducting children in the night. The people were getting desperate and they’d begun asking around for adventurers, word got to their little group and they’d agreed to take on the job. The only problem was that they had been in town for three days and they hadn’t been able to find the kids, or stop two more from being taken. There were now six children missing and the villagers were panicking.

“Well what’s the plan?” Dean asked desperation creeping into his voice “Cause I’m fucking lost. Using magic to cover your tracks is just cheating,” Dean said this with the venom he reserves only for those who use magic against him and those who threaten his family, and you really don't want to see how he gets when those two categories overlap.

“Well,” Said Sam, interjecting “We’re pretty sure that whatever this thing is it’s not powerful enough to ward it’s entire base against scrying.”

“So then why haven’t you or Cas been able to get us a visual on this thing?” said Dean, “Usually he just chants into that mirror of his and I’m looking at whatever ugly son of a bitch I need to kill.”

“Yeah but, back to the problem at hand, you can only scry on people and it’s powerful enough to ward itself against scrying,” said Charlie “So that’s kind of a moot point.”

Dean let out a frustrated sigh and rubbed his hands over his eyes. Three days of work and all they’d learned is that this thing can’t be tracked the normal way and it can’t be scryed on. Dean knew that every day they spent sitting on their asses in this shitty inn it got less and less likely that they would find those kids alive, and he just really didn’t want anybody else to die because he sucks at his job.

“You didn’t let me finish!” Said Sam. He was grinning like an idiot and even Cas had a spark of excitement in his eye, Dean felt hope blossom in his chest. “”It’s powerful enough to ward itself against scrying, but do you think that it warded the kids?”

There was a moment of silence as Dean let the idea settle.

“Well what the hell are we still doing down here!” Charlie said excitedly “Get the hell upstairs and start casting!”

********  
  


Once they were upstairs in Sam and Dean’s room with the door closed Sam began to rummage through his pack and lay out the materials on the small wooden table- three bottles, one of dark grey powder, one of reddish orange powder and a tightly sealed bottle of clear liquid. Then he took out a moth eaten sack-cloth doll that they had gotten from one of the parents of the kidnapped kids and what looked like a shriveled eyeball.

He then proceeded to make a large, thick circle with the dark grey powder and place the doll above it and the shriveled eye below.  Next, he used a small funnel in conjunction with the orange powder to circle the doll and the shriveled eye and connect them to the circle with two lines of dust.

“Holy crap,” said Dean, “What the hell is all this shit?”

“Well Cas doesn’t have the spell prepared today so I have to do it, and scrying is very complicated for wizards.” said Sam, “The doll is the girl’s and the eye is from a roc, they help focus the scrying and let me actually find a specific person. The powders are copper, the orange one; and zinc, the grey one. When the zinc in the center reacts to this nitric acid,” here he picks up the large and carefully sealed bottle of clear liquid, “it will serve as a catalyst for the spell, a place for me to focus. It’s easier to focus on power than a lack thereof, then the copper will serve as a conductor for the magical energy that I’ll have begun to pour in at that point and I don’t know why I’m still talking because I clearly lost you at the beginning.”

“Hey, It’s not my fault your magic is so complicated and boring.” said Dean.

“Tell me about it,” said Sam, rolling his eyes “Cas here only needs one goddamn mirror and druids just have to find a fucking puddle.”

It took Sam a half hour to lay out all of the materials and another half hour to cast the spell. He began by pouring the acid all along the zinc circle, whereupon it began to spit and sizzle and let off a pungent smoke that left everybody except Sam coughing violently. After that he began to chant; the chanting continued, unbroken, for an entire thirty minutes.

When Sam had completed the spell the entire inside of the circle turned an inky black, a moment later it cleared to reveal a frightened girl sitting in a cave. She was dressed in dirty rags and they could hear her crying quietly. It was dark but they could also make out the sleeping forms of other kids, though they couldn’t tell how many.

Charlie gave Dean a serious look and said, “Can you do anything with that?”

“I’ve been all over this area looking for those kids and there is only one place that could have caves big enough. I was over there yesterday and probably walked right past the entrance, Fuck!” Dean punctuated this statement by slamming his fist into the table.

“Dean you couldn’t have known.” Sam said appeasingly.

Cas laid a tentative hand on Dean’s shoulder “You can’t blame yourself for everything that goes wrong. The thing to do now is get to the children before it’s too late.”

At this point Charlie interjected. “I know that finding these kids is important but in case you haven’t noticed it’s dark and pouring out there. I’m not sure that we could find the stables, let alone some random cave in the woods.”

“If the rain is the only problem then I will change the weather.” Cas said this as if it were the most natural solution in the world and they were silly for not thinking of it themselves.

They all stared at him.

“Um, I don’t mean to sound rude buddy, but there is no way you’re powerful enough to cast that spell.” Sam said.

Unperturbed, Cas reached into his pack and pulled out an insanely thick scroll made of some sort of animal hide. “I took the liberty of purchasing this in the last large city we stopped at. I suspected we might find ourselves in just such a situation.”

Sam took the scroll and gave it an appraising look, “Cas, I’m no expert on divine magic but this doesn’t look like a cleric spell.”

“Well, It’s not.” said Cas, mildly abashed, “Unfortunately they only had a druidic one in stock. It will be slightly more difficult but I am confident that it is well within my capabilities. We should hurry though, the spell takes ten minutes to cast and we still need to find the place.”

Sam still looked skeptical but Dean interjected “Hey, If Cas says he can do it then I trust him. Now, let’s get out there and get this over with.”

“Scrolls aren’t that hard.” added Charlie. “I use them from time to time and I’m not even a caster.”

Castiel and Dean donned their armor as quickly as they were able and then the four of them made their way out into the dark and rain. Cas and Sam created four identical balls of light and placed one on each of their shoulders, casting a sharp white light on the surrounding area. After that Cas wasted no time in unrolling the scroll and rattling off a long and odd sounding chant, even Dean could tell that the language was very different from Cas’s usual divine dialect.

After ten minutes Cas finished the spell with a flourish. The three of them stood there for a few seconds but absolutely nothing happened.

“It’ requires another ten minutes to take effect.” explained Cas, but Dean had known him all of his life and he could tell when his friend was worried.

“Cas?” Dean asked carefully. “Did something go wrong?”

“No” Cas hesitated but then continued more strongly, “No. The spell worked, I’m sure of it. I just,” Cas looked up at the sky “made a couple of mistakes. But the spell still worked, it’ll be fine.”

********  
  


Ten minutes later and it was snowing as hard as it had been raining.

“Dammit, Cas!”

“I’m sorry, Dean.”

“... It’s okay.”

At this point Charlie cut in. “You realize that this is even worse, right?”

“She’s right,” Added Sam, “There’s no way you can track in this Dean.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job, Sammy. I’m not waiting till morning when everything’ll be under a foot of snow, let’s go.”

 

 

It took them hours of trudging through the rapidly piling snow for Dean to find the cliff face. Cas had to burn two spells just to keep him and Dean from getting frostbite from their armor.

“Alright, standard drill people. Spread out and search, casters scan for magic, Charlie and I’ll do it the old fashioned way.” The orders were delivered by Dean with an easy confidence and carried out with practiced efficiency by the group.

Charlie made her way to the left, going into a crouch and being completely silent; in sharp contrast to the rest of her loud-ass team. Dean and Cas were clanking around in their armor and Sam with his awkward sasquatch-y limbs. She ran an appraising eye over the rock wall, slightly hindered by the snow but making good progress.

She was about to move on to another part of the cliff when she noticed something off about a large boulder some twenty feet to her right. The rock in question was completely bare of snow, where the others all already had a solid inch on them. Not only that but upon closer inspection she could see that the falling snow appeared to move right through the rock.

Charlie reached into her bag and pulled out a scroll of her own. Where the scroll that Cas had used to change the weather was a six foot long piece of animal hide complete with diagrams for hand gestures, this was a scrap of paper only a few inches in length. She quietly chanted out the single line of text and accompanied it with a small hand motion, and immediately the world changed to her.

All color vanished, leaving her vision painted with hues of grey. Looking around at the monochromatic world Charlie noticed a few exceptions, the various magical trinkets that she carried with her were all glowing blue with varying degrees of intensity, the brightness in line with their power levels. Off in the distance she could see the faint auras of her companions’ magic items and spells through the swirling snow; but most importantly, when she looked down at the mysterious boulder she saw that it was emitting a brilliant aura of magical energy.

She wasted no time in whistling a simple three note call and her allies were at her side almost immediately, Dean jogging up first in that awful clanking armor of his.

“You know the whole point of the whistle is so that our enemies don’t know that we’re here.” Charlie hissed.

“Sorry,” said Dean, having the decency to look embarrassed.

“So you found something?” Sam interjected impatiently.

“Over there,” Said Charlie, pointing to the odd rock.

Sam took a single look at the rock, “Illusion, it looks like we’ve found our place.”

He walked around the rock, examining it carefully. “I don’t see anything other than the illusion and a silence spell, but I’m going to do a blanket dispel-just to be safe.”

He returned to the group and raised his hand and chanted out a few arcane syllables, a grey beam shot out his hand and dispersed in a haze of mist. The boulder flickered and vanished from view, leaving a roughly hewn entry into the hill; torchlight spilled out onto the fresh snow.

“Alright fellas, light’s off. I’m gonna do some recon and then we’re saving some kids, be ready.”

Sam and Cas dismissed the lights with a gesture, “I don’t think that we’ve got much to worry about, those wards were really easy to dispel. I think that we’re just dealing with a low power mage who’s got a lot of money.”

“Regardless, there’s no reason to go in blind. Besides, we of all people should know what kind of nasty things you can buy if you’ve got the coin for it.” Said Charlie.

“Just be careful, we don’t need you getting caught and zombified.” said Dean. He’d long ago stopped trying to keep Charlie from sneaking in alone to do recon. These days he just brooded and annoyed the crap out of everybody else by pacing around with his greatsword drawn, ready to rush in at the first sign of trouble.

Sure enough, as Charlie slipped away into the shadows Dean planted himself on a rock with his sword across his knees.

“Right, Cas,” Dean looked over to where the cleric was drawing his mace “How are you doing on spells?”

“I’ve got plenty should we run into more trouble than expected, but I think I’ll just restrict myself to melee for the most part.”

“Sammy, we’re gonna be dealing with undead but I don’t want you using fireballs, we’ll be in a cave.” Said Dean.

“I’m not an idiot Dean, I won’t cast fireball in an enclosed space.”

“Oh yeah? Am I the only one who remembers that time we were surrounded by pixies and you decide to blast us all to hell?” Dean said, wincing at the memory.

It hadn’t just been the pain either, but the smell of their own roasting flesh. It had taken all of Cas’s juice just to get them in working order again. The only one that hadn’t been hurt had been Charlie, who was halfway up a tree by the time the fireball had detonated. She hadn’t laughed or cracked jokes, that’s how bad it was. Just climbed down and started bandaging the wounds that Cas hadn’t had the mojo to heal.

“Look, I said I was sorry but it was the only way! Do you know what fey arrows can do to you? How would you have liked losing all of your memories. Permanently.”

They spent the rest of the wait in tense silence, broken only by Sam and Cas putting up the occasional ward or enchantment. By the time Charlie appeared next to them Sam was encased by translucent-floating armor and Cas was faintly glowing.

“Are we clear?” Asked Dean.

He was already getting up to and moving towards the cave mouth when Cas said “Charlie, are you alright?” His voice filled with real worry.

Dean spun around and saw that Charlie was pale and shaking, taking deep breaths to calm herself.

“Hey,” Dean said, kneeling down next to her and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, “What happened?”

“Nothing, nothing. I’m fine,” she said, pushing Cas away as he tried to examine her for wounds or curses. “It’s just... well you never get used to the sick shit those necromancers get up to, that’s all.”

Sam went pale, “The kids?”

“No, they are all okay for now, but we’ve got to hurry. He’s got an energy transformation field with a summoning circle right smack dab in the middle, and he’s chanting in Abyssal.”

“Abyssal,” Cas said, his eyes going wide, “That means demons.”

“Yeah, the kids are being held in  a separate room, probably sacrifices or offerings. We need to go now! He’s already started the ritual.”

“Wait!” said Sam. “What’s between us and him?”

“Nothing too nasty, just zombies and skeletons, nothing we haven’t handled before. I’ve already disarmed the traps and unlocked the one door.”

“Well then what the are we waiting for, lets get moving!” shouted Dean.

Without another word he and Castiel charged forward weapons raised, with Sam and Charlie following close behind. As they burst into the antechamber they took in the scene without slowing down, in the room a mix of zombies and skeletons.

Dean wasted no time, charging the first zombie he saw, catching it in the chest with his armored shoulder and sending it crashing to the ground. He raised his greatsword and stabbed down through it’s head and into the dirt below.

With the first zombie destroyed the others were quick to react, a skeleton moved up on Dean’s left and a zombie on his right. Before they could do anything Cas was there, like an avenging angel with a look of pure fury on his face. He collapsed the skull of the skeleton with a single swing of his mace, reducing it to splinters of bone. Before it even had time to crumble to the floor Cas had reached across Dean’s kneeling figure and grasped the zombie’s face with his gloved hand and shouted a divine word. White light burst from his palm and engulfed the zombie in positive energy burning him to ash.

In the split second that it took for all of that to happen, two more skeletons got into gear. They raised the rusty weapons they held in their claws, but before they could make their way over to where Cas was helping Dean up two arrows flew across the room and brought down the first skeleton. As Charlie was picking two more arrows out of her quiver Sam raised his hand, and without any kind of incantation five rippling balls of force shot out of his palm and pummeled into the skeleton one by one, reducing it to shards.

“Shit!” Said Sam, looking up at a banded iron door that loomed at the end of the next hallway “That’s gonna take some time to get through.”

“Don’t worry I already picked it, remember I scouted this place out?”

“Goddamn it!” said Dean “I hear chanting.”

He rushed forward and kicked open the door. Looking in, the party was greeted with an appalling sight -- a large circular chamber, carved out of purplish onyx. The walls were heavily detailed with ancient carvings, hundreds of years old at least. They were dense, and trying to decypher them stretched the eyes in odd ways, Dean was able to make out a few crude drawings of various types of demon, surrounded by arcane symbols and what looked like Abyssal letters.

Seeing the room itself Dean understood exactly why Charlie had been so disturbed by the scene. Three pillars circled the center of the chamber, and on each was a person. The only reason that Dean could tell these people were alive was from the sounds that they were making. Not screams, their bodies were far too mutilated for that level of sound, instead they were letting out low keening whimpers. They looked like they had been there for days, their bodies covered in festering wounds ranging from the shallow cuts that made up numerous necromantic and demonic symbols, to the gaping holes that displayed beating hearts and fluttering lungs.

In the center of this there stood a black-robed necromancer with his back to them. He had two clawed hands raised above his head was chanting in a low guttural language, Abyssal, the language of demons.

He stood at the edge of an intricately drawn circle of bloody sigils similar to the ones that coated the walls, cocooned in a miasma of black and purple entropic energy.

“Son of a bitch!” whispered Dean, stunned by the carnage before him.

This only lasted a second before he ran forward with his sword drawn, intent on killing the mage before he could finish his ritual. The second he came in contact with the field, however, he was blasted backwards. He slammed to the ground, negative energy coursing through his body. His skin began to turn black and crack.

“Dean!” The cry was torn from Cas’s throat as he rushed forward, laying hands on his friend and muttering an incantation under his breath. A soft white light, the same one that had destroyed the undead, flowed out of Cas’s hands and haloed Dean. Within seconds most of his wounds had healed and the terrible black corruption had vanished completely.

“We have to kill him now!” Shouted Sam over the rising chant as an ethereal wind began whipping around the chamber. “I can punch a hole through the field but only for a few seconds, we’ll have to blast him with everything we’ve got!” And without further delay Sam raised his hands and chanted the familiar incantation of a dispel magic spell.

The grey beam flew over the heads of his companions and hit the side of the globe, leaving a hole about two feet across in the rippling wall of energy, however the hole began to close almost immediately.

“Now!” Sam shouted.

Not needing any further prompting Charlie let loose three arrows in quick succession, they flew true, and thunked into the back of the necromancer one by one; however he didn’t so much as stutter.

Sam then raised his hand once more and shouted another word of power, a blast of white lightning shot out of his palm and lanced through the necromancer, staggering him. The bolt left a smoking hole in his robe revealing charred, burnt flesh beneath but the necromancer straightened up and began to chant even more ferociously than before.

Just as Charlie was letting loose another volley the hole closed and her arrows were disintegrated by the field. She let out a cry of despair.“No! We can't break through again.”

From where he was lying on the floor Dean shouted in rage “God FUCKING dammit!”

“It’s not over yet.” Cas said in a quiet, confident voice that could somehow be heard over the din in the chamber.

He rose from where he had been kneeling at Dean’s side, the wind whipping around him, and began to chant in a low, dangerous voice. His words rose above the sound of the necromancer’s chanting, clear and pure. Celestial, the language of angels. His eyes glowed an even more brilliant blue than before as the incantation reached it’s climax.  He raised a single hand, a pillar of flame glowing with the brilliant white light of Castiel's divine energy engulfed the necromancer. His agonized screams ripped through the torrent of the holy fire.

When the smoke and flame cleared there was nothing left of the necromancer save a few webs of charred flesh clinging to a blackened skeleton. The wind died down to nothing, the field of energy dissipated and the three weeping humans were finally given the release of death.

The entire party breathed a sigh of relief as Castiel helped Dean up from the ground. Everything was quiet.

“Well,” said the demon leaning against the far wall. “That sure was a pretty light show.” 


	2. Demon Daze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh noes! It's a demon, how's the gang gonna get out of this one?

Four heads snapped towards the source of the voice to see a stunningly beautiful woman leaning casually against the stone wall. In cave’s dim light she seemed to gleam as if lit by hellish flames; silky black hair fell over delicate shoulders of milky white, framing a sultry face set with dark cunning eyes. She wore nothing but a thin shift that clung tightly to her body, her nakedness visible through the fabric.  
On the darkly enchanting woman demonic features were clear. Large bat-like wings were delicately folded against her back and a scaly, pointed tail curled around a thigh.  
“Succubus.” growled Castiel, who immediately began to advance. He spoke a holy word and his mace was sheathed in white light.  
The demon leveled a disdainful glance at him. “Ruby, since you didn’t ask, and I’m not here to fight.” She remained casually against the wall despite the advancing cleric. “What’s-his-face over there summoned me” she gestured to the dead necromancer. “But since he’s dead I’m a free agent until the spell wears off.”  
“All the more reason to kill you now.” Dean raised his own sword and moved to flank her.  
“Oh, come on, I won't do anything bad.” Her tone was playful despite the two advancing opponents. “I’ve got all of the entertainment I need right here in this cave.”  
“Whadda you mean by that?”  
“Well, you and redhead are pretty boring and mister Holy over there makes my skin crawl, but you,” She started to advance on Sam, “You’ve got some power.”  
“Alright that’s enough.” said Dean, “Time to die bitch.”  
Dean charged, coming in for a swing, but before he could reach her she blinked out of existence and reappeared on the other side of the cave; Dean came to a stumbling halt. Charlie fired two arrows in quick succession but both bounced harmlessly off the demon’s skin.  
“Well crap...” Said Charlie who began to frantically rummage around in her bag.  
Dean and Castiel quickly reoriented themselves and began cautiously approaching the demon from opposite directions.  
“I already said that I’m not here to fight, idiots. When the spell wears off I’ll be out of your hair.”  
“And into ’the hair’ of whatever innocents you decide to torment next? I’d rather do the world a favor and kill you now.” said Castiel as he advanced with his glowing mace.  
“Take a break blue eyes, you’re not in this anymore.” She vanished and reappeared in front of Sam, grinning and running a finger along his jaw. “So tell me gorgeous, what’s your name?”  
Sam, who had been motionlessly staring at Ruby quickly replied with frantic excitement, “Sam! My name is Sam.”  
“Pleased to meetcha Sam, mind doing something about those two for me?” Said Ruby, gesturing to Dean and Cas.  
She had been eyeing them cautiously as more of Charlie’s arrows, daggers and throwing stars bounced harmlessly off her.  
“Sure!” Said Sam.  
“What the hell Sammy!” Dean shouted as he broke into a charge.  
Sam, however, simply gestured in his direction and Dean completely froze, sword raised, in mid-run. Another gesture and Castiel was enclosed in a clear bubble of force; he beat against it with his mace but to no avail, his shouts and curses mute to the others in the room.  
“What the fuck did you do to him you bitch!” Shouted Charlie as she tossed a glass bottle from her bag directly at Ruby.  
Everybody in the room followed the arc of the bottle with their eyes, ending it’s flight by shattering on the demon’s head. Flames blossomed around Ruby, completely engulfing her, but she only laughed as they flared up and slowly died down; there wasn’t a mark on her.  
“Really sweetheart? I’m a demon, not a paper doll. This is getting pretty funny but lucky for you my time’s just about up; so you don’t have to keep embarrassing yourself. But before I go I’d like a little something for my troubles...”  
She turned around and grabbed Sam by the front of his robe and pulled him into a deep kiss. His look of surprise was quickly replaced by one of horror as he began to grow pale and thin, skin stretched across bone as his life force was sucked out. In contrast Ruby seemed to increase in vitality, her skin became rosy and her eyes glowed bright red. Even her hair appeared to thicken and become more lustrous. She pulled away with a satisfied sound and let Sam collapse to the floor.  
Ruby gave him one last smile, said “Bye sweetie, see you soon.” and vanished in a puff of smoke.

*******************************************  
  
It had only been a few minutes since Ruby left but those minutes were filled with frantic action.  
Charlie had managed to bring down the globe entrapping Cas with a scroll from her bag and together the two were tending to Sam, while Dean remained frozen in mid-charge with a look of rage on his face.  
“The funny thing,” said Charlie in a grave voice while Cas chanted the incantation to a heavy-duty restoration spell “is that he’ll probably look more pissed off when we free him.”  
Cas finished his spell and gently touched Sam on the forehead, when he did Sam’s muscles began to re-inflate and the color returned to his skin. He lazily opened his eyes and looked around, confused.  
“Wha- Cas... Why am I on the ground?” His voice was weak and he was having trouble focusing on Castiel’s face.  
“It’s all right Sam, you’re just disoriented. You can rest soon but first I need you to dismiss the spell you put on Dean.”  
“Huh? Why’d I put a spell on Dean? Was he being annoying?”  
Castiel laughed gently, “Yeah, it’s like that time when we were young, he was going to tell John about a suit of armor you knocked over so you put a silence spell on him.”  
Sam also started to chuckle. “He got sooo pissed off, he couldn’t shout so he broke my nose instead.”  
Then Sam lazily waved of his hand and fell out of consciousness.  
There was a crash from behind her and Charlie turned to see Dean on the ground, swearing as he got to his knees, the momentum of his charge finally having caught up to him. Charlie went over helped him to his feet and he quickly moved to Sam’s side after a quiet word of thanks.  
He knelt down next to Cas and put a light hand on his brother’s forehead, “Son of a bitch.” he whispered. Then he turned to Castiel, “He’s gonna be okay?”  
“He was put under the effects of a dominate person spell paired with a powerful energy drain, either one of which would be very damaging on it’s own, but Sam is tough; he will make a full recovery.”  
“Dean,” said Charlie “do you know what’s going on?”  
“Yeah, I could still see and hear everything; I just couldn’t do anything useful.” He gave a small, sad, chuckle. “I still remember that time... I hit him in the face so hard he blacked out and I broke my hand. Of course Dad didn’t care about the armor but he was furious that I had broken Sammy’s nose, he wouldn’t even let me get my hand healed.” Dean was still smiling that sad, wistful smile.  
“I know,” said Cas, face mirroring Dean’s “I was the one who bandaged it and set Sam’s nose.”  
“You guys,” Charlie interrupted. “We’re not done here.”  
“Right,” said Dean, standing up, suddenly back to his usual gruff self.. “lead the way.” He paused. “Cas...”  
“I’ll stay with Sam.”  
“Good.”  
Charlie lead him out the room and at the end a short hallway where they found a locked iron door. She made short work of it and it swung open to reveal a sight that made the stress and horror of this dungeon more than worth it. A group of twelve dirty, terrified, but very much alive children.  
  
*******************************************  
  
A short while later things were already looking up, Sam had regained consciousness and was able to stand on his own, meanwhile Castiel had shepherded the children out of the cave. Charlie met up with Dean in the entrance chamber after giving the entire place a good once-over, she was now walking with a medium sized sack, bulging with loot slung across her back.  
“You sharin’ Charlie?” Dena joked as they walked out of the cave. “Cause I sure could use some money to buy a shiney new demon-killing sword.”  
“Of course Dean,” Charlie said, with a wicked grin. “Once I subtract a reasonable finder’s fee. I don’t go through a dead necromancer’s pockets for nothing.”  
The four of them were careful to keep the mood light and the children’s spirits high the entire trip back to town, where they were greeted by many parents weeping with joy and a not insubstantial bonus from the mayor for finding all of the children alive.  
But eventually everybody returned home, the parents to care for their dirty, malnourished children and the mayor to sleep and the party were left around the table of the sitting room in their new suite at a substantially nicer inn than the one they started at.  
Sam was the first to break the silence.  
“Listen, you guys, I... I don't know what to say. Sorry doesn't even begin-”  
“Shut it Sam.” said Dean, “You have nothing to be sorry about.”  
“Dean is right,” said Cas, “You were being controlled, you were not responsible.”  
“But I’m a Wizard!” Sam said, distressed. “We’re supposed to be all about mental strength. It should be insanely difficult for something to take control of my mind.”  
“I said don’t worry about it Sammy, we’ve all had bad runs. I’ve been beaten in sword fights, Charlie’s fallen into traps, Cas’s gotten stomped by the forces of evil. It happens to everybody, you learn from it and move on.”  
“Yeah,” said Sam, “I guess. Listen you guys I’m pretty beat, I’m just gonna go to bed.”  
They watched in silence as he got up and crossed the room, but nobody moved to follow his example. The door to his room clicked shut. There were a long few moments before Charlie broke the silence.  
“Do you think that demon’s going to be a problem?”  
“It’s not gonna get a chance to be anything but dead once I’m done with it.” said Dean, rage boiling behind his eyes. “Cas, talk to us, how do we find and kill this thing.”  
“Finding it would be impractical, it has presumably returned to the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, the realm in which all demons reside. To get to her would be near impossible as the plain is full of demons, of which she is far from the worst, undead, aberrations, Gods of unimaginable evil insanity, and worse... Not to mention the problem of physically locating her; which would be challenging seeing as the Abyss is, as the name suggests, infinite. We might stand the slightest sliver of a chance should we amass an army of the most powerful beings of good and law in the cosmos and wage an all out war on the forces of evil.”  
“Cool,” said Dean, “When do we get started on that?”  
Charlie and Cas leveled a look at him.  
“Alright, alright; tone down the death glares. What about summoning? Can we bring her to us?”  
“We could cast the spell but she would never respond to somebody of my alignment. I think that the best thing we could do is prepare ourselves and know that the only reason she defeated us so thoroughly last time is because we were completely unequipped to handle her.”  
“Well you know what that means.” said Charlie, a grin lighting up her face, chasing away some of the darkness of the day.”  
Dean sighed resignedly and Charlie leaned across the table till she was in his face.  
“Shopping spree!”  
“I shall begin planning a course to the nearest large city.” Said Castiel helpfully.  
“Well so much for a rainy day fund.”


End file.
